Richards eyes success on the road

9th December

Gary Richards has urged Swansea City Under-23s to build on their strong recent away form when they face Blackburn Rovers in Premier League 2 on Monday (12pm).

The young Swans travel to Blackburn Rovers Academy aiming to record their third consecutive victory on the road in all competitions.

After an impressive second-half display in their 5-3 defeat by West Ham United, the development side have enjoyed a thumping 4-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur, as well as overcoming Charlton Athletic 1-0 to progress to the Checkatrade Trophy knockout stages.

Currently 11th in Premier League 2, they are looking to move four points clear of 12th-placed Blackburn by claiming victory in Lancashire, and Richards wants his players to establish control of the contest.

“We’re going on the road with lots of confidence,” the under-23s coach said.

“We’ve recently hit a little bit of form away from home and picked up some good results.

“We’ve had some close games against Blackburn in the past and they are always competitive.

“It’s important that we try to stamp our authority on the game.

“From there, we want to produce a good performance and, hopefully, the result will come with it.”

The trip to Blackburn is the first of the under-23s’ three remaining games in the calendar year.

They welcome Hertha Berlin to Landore in the Premier League International Cup on Thursday – four days before hosting Liverpool in the league.

Richards believes the players should be excited by the forthcoming challenges and has encouraged them to end 2018 in style.

“We’re certainly looking forward to this game, as well as the other two we have coming up,” he added.

“I think any of our players looking ahead to those fixtures can do nothing but look forward to them.

“It would be great for us to finish the year in a strong manner.”